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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 2:22 am
Time: 2:22 am
Results for consumer abuses
1 results foundAuthor: Highsmith, Brian Title: Commercialized (In)Justice: Consumer Abuses in the Bail and Corrections Industry Summary: This National Consumer Law Center report examines the growing problem of consumer abuses by private companies profiting from the U.S. criminal legal system and mass incarceration, disproportionately affecting people of color and low-income people, and makes recommendations for reform. This report discusses the growing problem of "commercialized injustice"-consumer abuses perpetuated by companies profiting from the criminal legal system and mass incarceration. Although not always visible to people who do not live in heavily-policed communities or who are protected by other forms of privilege, the scale of private industry's involvement in the contemporary criminal legal system is staggering. These companies provide a wide range of products and services, and operate in various relationships with the government. Some contract directly with governments (e.g., private probation and prison phone services). Others sell directly to consumers, but under specific authority to administer criminal legal functions (e.g., commercial bail and certain rehabilitation and diversion programs). And others simply profit from the contours of our modern criminal legal system (e.g., pre-arrest diversion programs that contract with private retailers). The expanding reach of the modern corrections industry represents the intersection of two troubling trends: (1) the outsourcing of the criminal legal system to the private sector, exemplified by the growth of the private prison industry; and (2) the imposition of fines and fees on mostly low-income defendants to fund the criminal legal system. States and local governments are outsourcing various core functions of their criminal legal systems-traditionally public services-to private corporations operating to maximize profit for their owners. At the same time, they have sought to shift the cost of operating the criminal legal system onto those who have contact with the system and their loved ones, particularly through the assessment of fines and fees on those accused of criminal activity. The corrections industry's growth exacerbates these trends, combining the conflicts of interest endemic in so-called "user-funded" financing structures with the lack of public accountability that advocates have long criticized in the private prison context. Every industry discussed in this report shares this common feature: each profits from financial extractions from individuals based on their exposure to the criminal legal system. The growth of the corrections industry accelerates the trend whereby the costs of our legal system are imposed on low-income, disadvantaged communities least able to shoulder such burdens, rather than shared as a collective public responsibility. The corrections industry operates for the primary purpose of maximizing profits for its owners-creating strong incentives to achieve new forms of monetary extraction in addition to shifting the burden of existing costs. Details: Boston: National Consumer Law Center, 2019. 62p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 18, 2019 at: https://www.nclc.org/images/pdf/criminal-justice/report-commercialized-injustice.pdf Year: 2019 Country: United States URL: https://www.nclc.org/images/pdf/criminal-justice/report-commercialized-injustice.pdf Shelf Number: 155462 Keywords: Bail IndustryConsumer AbusesCorrectionsPrisonsPrivate IndustryPrivate Legal SystemPrivate PrisonsPrivatization |